Promise
by Firefly99
Summary: MGS3. EVA. Boots, bikes and Bosses.


EVA listened to the dying echoes of the Groznyj Grad intercom with mild amusement. The poor announcer had sounded scared as anyone underneath the cool, businesslike facade, even though he was several minutes late to the party and probably screaming the message into the microphone on his way out. She let out a brief snort, ignoring The Boss's stare, and began to lace up EVA's – her – boots.

They were so much more comfortable than Tatyana's boots. Tatyana's boots were mass-produced in the factories of the people, workers nailing and stitching together leather to order, but were designed to fit someone else and not her. The spy network had procured them, and every single element of Tatyana's outfit, clothes, and makeup had probably been flown several times around the world, passed through uncountable hands, and finally ended up here. Now that she wasn't wearing them, they looked like a shell; a weak, soft shell filled with her own shapeless core. All she had to do, she thought, was to pour herself into something stronger and she'd have the power she needed to continue. After all, she'd been trained by the most perfect woman in the world. She couldn't afford to doubt herself.

"Who do you hate more?" The Boss asked, offhandedly, and EVA jolted, not registering fully that The Boss had spoken until a little too late – and chuckled at her own unreadiness.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked, lifting her face to meet The Boss's eyes. They were clear and cold and hard and never failed to chill her from the inside.

"Is it Volgin you hate?" The Boss asked. "Volgin with his cruelty and his self-centred, warmongering nature? Don't you want to, quite literally, steal his thunder –" EVA smirked at the thought – "and feed it back to him? Or," The Boss continued, rounding on her, "do you hate Tatyana for having to be weak enough not to be able to fight him off? Didn't you cry at her to get up and move and not just lie there, waiting for him to come closer? From that distance you put between you and her?"

EVA pursed her lips, and thought.

"Volgin," she decided, smiling because she knew that wasn't the answer The Boss was trying to make her give, and yet it was no less honest. "What are you surprised about? If it wasn't for him, Tatyana – no matter how despicable she is – would never have needed to be born, now, would she?"

She noticed The Boss was trying not to smile at her as she stood up and zipped up her flight suit – then pulled it straight back down, smoothing the material over herself and stretching her shoulders. Now it fitted her.

"And Tatyana's not all bad," she continued, easing herself onto the bike. In the seat, she felt…right. Finally, she could win this battle. "She's a bit weak, I'll admit that; pretends to be pure and perfect when she's nothing like that." She let her hands tighten around the handlebars, trying to fit with the machine, trying to force herself to connect to it – she felt like a noble prince coming to save the princess on his proud steed. "But there's a strong woman lurking inside that somewhere. And she's not weak. And she has a better assessment of where her few weaknesses are."

The Boss's head jolted suddenly, directing her gaze down the corridor. EVA let out a sharp cry of surprise, before realising what it was.

"He's won, hasn't he?" she said, smiling wickedly.

"The air feels different," The Boss stated, very soft, slightly hoarse. "Don't you think?"

EVA looked silently at the back of The Boss's head for a while, trying to fix the scene into her memories. All too soon this would all fade, she realised, and The Boss might just get –

"I'll take your word for it," she eventually said, redirecting the front wheel of the bike to face the way out. She started the engine, making it growl violently under her, and feeling as if it was her own battle-cry.

The Boss spoke, distantly.

"He's not strong enough to protect himself just yet," she said, not turning around. "You must do that for him."

"I'll do that," EVA said lazily, but The Boss cut her off.

"I want your word. Protect him. Promise me."

EVA stared ahead for a moment, then told the air.

"Boss," she said, "I promise."

She didn't need The Boss to turn around to know she was smiling as she gunned the bike out of the building.


End file.
